Contributors

Ronald Searle, CBE, RDI was one of the most acclaimed satirical graphic artist of the twentieth century. He delighted millions with his creation of St Trinians and published numerous books of caricatures of humans and animals, as well as being a leading contributor to Le Monde and Life magazine. He died in 2011.

Jean Nohain (1900-1981) was a French playwright, lyricist, and screenwriter, as well as a noted radio and television producer and presenter. He was the son of the librettist Franc-Nohain and the brother of the actor Claude Dauphin.

François Caradec (1924-2008) was a biographer of Lautréamont, Jarry, Roussel, Allais, and others, as well as a historian, publisher, poet, novelist, and radio personality. His diverse bibliography includes prose comic strips, multiple dictionaries of slang and a dictionary of gestures, and a biography of his dog.

Leopold Samuel Marks, MBE (24 September 1920 – 15 January 2001) was an English writer, screenwriter, and cryptographer. During the Second World War he headed the codes office supporting resistance agents in occupied Europe for the secret Special Operations Executive organisation. After the war, Marks became a playwright and screenwriter, writing scripts that frequently utilised his war-time cryptographic experiences. He wrote the script for Peeping Tom, the controversial film directed by Michael Powell which had a disastrous effect on Powell's career, but was later described by Martin Scorsese as a masterpiece. In 1998, towards the end of his life, Marks published a personal history of his experiences during the war, Between Silk and Cyanide, which was critical of the leadership of SOE.

Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese emigrant to America, is best known for his poem The Prophet. Although he primarily lived in America, he wrote in Arabic and his poetic voice remained that of the East. Gibran's books have been translated into over twenty languages and are loved by people all over the world.

Carol Staudacher is a grief consultant, lecturer, and author of Beyond Grief and Men and Grief.

Acknowledged as one of the great Latin American writers of the twentieth century, Juan Carlos Onetti was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1909. For many years he worked as a journalist in Buenos Aires. His novels include The Well, No Man's Life, and his best known work, The Shipyard. He was awarded Uruguay's national literature prize in 1963 and Spain's prestigious Cervantes Prize in 1980. He lived in Madrid until his death in 1994.

Subcomandante Marcos is a spokesperson and strategist for the Zapatistas, an indigenous insurgency movement based in Mexico. He first joined the guerilla group which was to become the Zapatistas in the early 1980s. Marcos is the author of several books, including Story of the Colours and Our Word is Our Weapon.

Mia Couto was born in Mozambique in 1955. When his country became independent in 1975, Couto interrupted his studies to become a journalist and newspaper editor. Later, he resumed his studies, and is now an environmental biologist. He has published poetry, short stories and a number of novels. His work has been widely recognized in the Portuguese speaking world, and has been translated into a number of European languages.

Gayl Jones was born in Kentucky in 1949. Her novel The Healing was shortlisted for the 1998 National Book Award. She is also the author of Eva's Man, The White Rat: Short Stories, and numerous other works which include plays and poetry.

Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918) was Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford. He was also a canon of Christ Church, Oxford. The Scott Holland Memorial Lectures are held in his memory.